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Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

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101–110 of 189 posts

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I bite. I went to your site and then clicked to learn javascript. There is a short description about javascript and then a couple of links to javascript tutorials. What now?

This is exactly the problem users are having. Since the purpose of the site and how it works is buried in the About page, people are clueless about what to do next. I am redoing the front page to only focus on explaining what the site is about. The idea is this : * provide a community reviewed wiki explaining what X is about and how to go about learning it. The aim is to answer the questions how to learn X programmin…

That's definitely part of the issue. When I viewed your site, I didn't have a clue what it did, or whether those were the only categories (they seem to be) or what features were even available here.

But I think your bigger issue is that your site feels completely dead. I mean, it's not hard to find the QA section or chat when you view a topic, but the lack of activity here means there's no real incentive to contribute. I mean, why ask a question if no one else is asking or answering any questions?

So my advice would be to focus on getting the site active to begin with. Maybe do like Reddit and make a bunch of fake users to ask questions about Django and Javascript and whatever else, then answer them with either your main account or one of the other fake ones. That way, when people view the Q/A pages or chats, they'll think there's an actual community there willing to help them out, and actually post a few questions.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#102
post #88

1. I scoured the reviews of similar apps and listed the main feature requests that were being stonewalled and implemented them. 2. I then set up keyword alerts for Reddit and Twitter and when somebody mentioned [similar app] I popped in and suggested they try Lanes which, btw, has feature [similar app] has not implemented . 3. I got lucky^. Photos of Lanes began appearing on Tumblr blogs (the #studyblr community) and…

How do you make money or hope to make money?

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#103
post #69

I asked for honest feedback for my app https://everydaycheck.com on a couple of subreddits where people are trying to get disciplined and improve themselves. Since it was my personal goal too I could easily relate and that brought a lot of signups, great feedback and most importantly, engaged users!

Looks nice, feels a bit like the old Lift app, which sadly turned into a coaching marketplace social thing.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#104
post #19

I’ll second the PG advice: do things that don’t scale is by far the most effective tool I’ve found for finding _and keeping_ users. I’m building small-business tools for fringe retail [0] as a side-project, and those users are usually more than willing to at least investigate new apps if they even have a chance of solving some real problem their business faces. Emailing them personally with a pitch based on a few min…

Alternative side, as a big company when I get a nice small startup that tries to fit our needs that way, I keep them close. It's like the whole "you owe bank money" story. If you owe the back $1,0000 you have a problem, if you owe them 1 million, they have a problem. In my experience, if you're that startup's largest client, they'll bend over backwards to help you succeed.

"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." - J. Paul Getty

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I bite. I went to your site and then clicked to learn javascript. There is a short description about javascript and then a couple of links to javascript tutorials. What now?

Well, your browser info and metadata have now been sold to third parties for a few pennies, so I'd say mission successful for site owner. Are people actually still this naive? Reading HN users makes me feel like I'm trapped in the 80s where the internet was a magical mystery that nobody really understood. It's about 40 years too late to just assume the average trash website is actually a meaningful statement about so…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#107
post #86

Lots of people come up with a good idea for a product, launch, then wonder where to get users. "Start with the market, instead," evolves their consciousness. I offer a different approach: start with the customer acquisition strategy and then build your product. 1) Build a landing page describing the problem and your solution, in terms of emotional value benefits 2) Drive paid traffic to the landing page. Get at least…

I would have to strongly recommend against number eight. It's almost impossible to be done tactfully and it's even harder to avoid the appearance of using your friends. If I built something cool that I genuinely believed one of my friends would find useful then I would wait for them to seek me out with their problem and just give them perpetual free use with no strings attached and write it off as marketing.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#108
post #81
post #77

I seeded my site with scraped data for quite a while. Once organic started coming in and twitter referrals and hits increasing I added an email subscription. http://weworkcontract.com/

I love your website, please continue doing what you're doing! Best of luck!

Thanks man!

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#109
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be interested in finding out more on the subject. Would you care to expand a bit on the above?

I built a farm management SaaS product. It's basically a managerial accounting platform. I've written a bunch of blog posts (75 I think) over the last 2 years. I see what posts perform well on FB, then boost them. I've spent $22,000 on Facebook ads and have acquired 6,000 leads from the spend.

That's really cool. Thanks for the followup.

Re: Ask HN: How did you acquire your first 100 users?

#110
post #102
post #88

1. I scoured the reviews of similar apps and listed the main feature requests that were being stonewalled and implemented them. 2. I then set up keyword alerts for Reddit and Twitter and when somebody mentioned [similar app] I popped in and suggested they try Lanes which, btw, has feature [similar app] has not implemented . 3. I got lucky^. Photos of Lanes began appearing on Tumblr blogs (the #studyblr community) and…

How do you make money or hope to make money?

> hope to make money

Definitely this one. The app is free out of the box but there's extra features for those who want them - productivity insights, Pocket-like features etc.

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